


The haunting of Steve Harrington

by Faraheim



Series: Discord mess [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen, Nightmares, Self-Harm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-21
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-10-13 15:29:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17490539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Faraheim/pseuds/Faraheim
Summary: Steve wakes up in the death of night, it’s dark and cold. colder than it should be and he can see his breath fog as he exhales. a shiver runs down his back and goosebumps prick his arms quickly.Steve stands letting the sheets pool on the floor because there’s a sound, something like scratching or something beating? he tries the switch on his room but it won’t light up.





	The haunting of Steve Harrington

Steve wakes up in the death of night, it’s dark and cold. colder than it should be and he can see his breath fog as he exhales. a shiver runs down his back and goosebumps prick his arms quickly.

Steve stands letting the sheets pool on the floor because there’s a sound, something like scratching or something beating? he tries the switch on his room but it won’t light up.

he walks outside his room but he’s not afraid. the gate is closed he knows.

fear isn’t present, not until he makes it downstairs. the doors to the pool rattle softly like the wind is too strong. he’s about to open the door but something grabs his shirt and pulls. he hits his face on the thick glass and he pushes back from the force but before he falls he jerks up in his bed, the light is on. he’s shivering under the blankets. His heart is beating madly, he’s scared.

 

-

 

it’s not the last time it happens.

-

 

Steve has nightmares where the Demodogs eat all the kids while he stands to the side terrified and unable to move. these dreams are different.

 

he thinks he can hear Barb sometimes.

 

-

 

he can’t sleep and it shows. his eyes have deep dark purple smudges under them like bruises. He feels like he’s dying.

 

-

Steve is in the bathroom looking at his reflexion and out of nowhere, his hand is hitting the mirror with scary precision.

the mirror doesn’t break, this is a dream.

 

-

Steve can tell when he’s dreaming most of the time because it’s always cold always dark and the guilt isn’t there.

 

he starts drinking again.

 

-

he cuts a harsh line on his arm it bleeds sluggishly thick stuff, it doesn’t look like blood.

he drank too much for his blood to be this thick.

but this time is not a dream he’s bleeding for real. he calls Nancy.

 

Nancy sees him and drags him to the hospital, he’s drunk so they believe it’s an accident but Nancy isn’t stupid and while her eyes say this is not the end of it the closed door says the rest.

 

-

 

he’s drinking again and this time he can hear her voice so clearly she screams  _ help, help! _ so he goes. he stumbles but he makes it outside, the cement is cold like ice on the plant of his feet. but it’s already so cold he can barely feel it, he’s on the side of the pool and it’s like a drum on his head like rain and a storm that pushes him or he himself walks completely drunk to the shallow part of his big fancy pool. thinks this is payment. thinks  _ we killed Barb  _ and sees Nancy’s eyes so sad the day they finally buried her.

 

and then he’s falling into the cold place where he can’t feel alive. the water is a shock to his system and he welcomes it he  _ falls _ under.

 

and Steve sinks and  _ sinks and sinks _ until his body touches the bottom of the pool. first his hand and then-   
  
he wakes up in his bed. Mattress and clothes soaked.

  
  


-   
the weird dreams stop as suddenly as they started but   
Sometimes when he looks in the mirror there's this second between heartbeats where it's not Steve Harrington in the mirror.

 

\--

  
Barb is having the weirdest dream, so weird that she thinks Tommy H or stupid Carol drugged her. 

she keeps seeing Steve and he can’t hear her. He sometimes comes close but he always disappears when she about to reach him she knows he's not a good guy. It's better than the nothingness, the cold that fills her so she grasps onto him when she finally can. Steve is not  _ the worst _ but he’s also not on her top 10 list of reliable people. she doesn’t even know more than five people but Steve still wouldn't make top 30 (it’s a big school).

  
Barb steals bit by bit the warmth from Steve. Grasps and pulls. Until it doesn't feel cold. Every step Steve takes towards the place she's tethered is like the thump thump of a heart louder and louder rocking into her until she recognizes it as her own. But it isn't? she doesn't have a heart not anymore  _ she thinks _ . When Steve falls into the water is like she's looking at the sun until she feels it on her cheeks like a warm day. Slowly she pulls and Steve sinks closer. closer and when his finger touches the floor of the pool she vanishes from the dark place.   
  
But everything is cold again and she's trembling. Barb tries to breathe and ice water enters her like needles.   
She kicks towards the surface wonky and unused. Her body moves wrong and she feels like her limbs take seconds to catch up. But finally, she makes it to the stairs.   
  
Thinks anxious I have to go, _ help _ thinks scared  _ NANCY _ and she grasps the metal handles like a monster is on her tail and pulls herself quick. Falls onto the dry surface of the floor and scraps her hands pulling away from the pool. And she's tired and drunk but she didn't drink. She remembers that everyone left and she was at the pool and now she's drunk?   
She coughs water and it hurts. It's so cold. But different. A different cold. Less dead and then something inside her moves and then the body moves and she's dreaming again?   
But the place is not hard, not cold and not scary anymore. And when she moves it feels like a bed so she loses herself


End file.
